by Fitzgerald Cecilio

South Bend, IN

The Big East has announced that it has reached an acceptable resolution with Notre Dame, allowing the Fighting Irish to bolt the league two years early and join the ACC on July 1.

"This decision makes sense for the Big East," commissioner Mike Aresco said in a statement after a vote by Big East presidents.

"In view of Notre Dame's expressed desire to join the ACC on an earlier timetable, the Big East and Notre Dame were able to arrive at an acceptable resolution," Aresco added.

Earlier, it was reported that the Big East sought a $2.5 million exit fee for the Irish as the exit agreement requires a 27-month notice.

However, the Big East agreed to allow Notre Dame to leave without paying an exit fee because the Irish agreed not to seek any of the league's exit and entrance fee revenue of about $110 million accumulated in the past few years.

Of the $110 million, about $10 million was given to the departing Catholic 7 schools and $15 million to lawyers and consultants, sources said.

That leaves an estimated $85 million to be distributed between the remaining members, including Cincinnati, Connecticut and South Florida, and the league's incoming members scheduled to join in 2013 and 2014.

The Fighting Irish announced last year they were joining the ACC in all sports except football.

"From the time of our decision to join the ACC we have stressed our commitment to ensuring that our departure was achieved in a collegial manner," Notre Dame vice president and director of athletics Jack Swarbrick said in the joint statement with the Big East.

The ACC had been planning for months to accommodate Notre Dame if it was able to join for the 2013-14 academic year. The ACC already has formulated an 18-game, 15-team scheduling format for men's basketball.

Notre Dame will play home-and-home ACC games against Boston College and Georgia Tech along with two other ACC schools to be determined. Notre Dame also will play one game each against the league's remaining 10 members.

"Our conference, schools and fans are delighted that Notre Dame will join the ACC on July 1, 2013," ACC commissioner John Swofford said in a statement. "The addition of Notre Dame, Pitt and Syracuse, followed by Louisville in 2014, positions us extremely well with an outstanding collection of 15 member institutions."

Notre Dame was prepared to remain in the Big East at least another season. But that all changed with the announcement that the Catholic 7 schools -- DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall and Villanova -- would depart July 1 to form their own league.

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Big East Allows Notre Dame to exit two years early